Sunday, December 14, 2008

These are some brooches I made using 3 gorgeous Marianne Huhn porcelain buttons owned by Shannon . I spent ages looking for her online before I realised I'd missread her signature on the back of the button - Huhn not Kuhn!

Marianne says of her work "I wanted to build on the idea of containment in our lives. I used maps and borders in our landscape and houses and the roles they play in our lives, to speak about the pots function of containment." The buttons certainly fit well here then containing people as they do in swathes of cloth. I also love the translation into buttons of these map fragments- so you can glance down at your coat to get your bearings. It makes me think of the cloth labels we had to wear as children in the first week of school with our name and grade on it.

Anyway I get to keep one. I bags the one with 17 on it (my childhood street number). I know there is always a room for me at number 17 - or so mum threatens! They are made with rubber, st silver and stainless steel. I'd like to say that the rubber discs are a well thought out reference to the streetscape graphics on the porcelain but they were just some bits and bobs I'd collected from Reverse Garbage which happen to conceal the hinge of the pin.

Friday, December 12, 2008

My BIA Intro to Gold and Silversmithing students had their final exhibition last week and they made these wonderful pieces ( I was very proud and loved what they did with the etching):Pierce Hirth: Matchbox Cover (etched pattern on side) sterling silver, sterling silver match, paper clip and ring pull, florin set in sterling silver

I'm so lucky to have this arts community on my doorstep. I especially realised this when I popped down yesterday to get these photos and the place was a-buzz. Linda Beck, ceramics tutor was having a studio sale and I picked up this wonderful sexy new teapot and swapped some fresh eggs for their yummy Ashgrovian honey...

Monday, December 01, 2008

I went to bed early to escapedealing witha foolish fancy involving at least one woodenhead and a large quantity of sandso missed the night of the termites.but when i awokethe floor under windows, doors, openingswas drifted with tiny transparent wingstheir bold and reckless flightreaping similar rewards to my own.